Architecture and related methods facilitating secure port bypass circuit settings

A method comprising:

• issuing one or more control command(s) to a controller which, when interpreted causes the controller to issue control signals to a port bypass circuit to control an operational state of the port bypass circuit;
• verifying that the controller accurately received the one or more control commands before the control signals are passed to the port bypass circuit;
• issuing a control signal to a latch, selectively coupling the controller to one or more port bypass circuit(s), upon verification that the received one or more control command(s) are accurate;
• and
• applying the control signals to the port bypass circuit(s).

A storage system comprising:

• a controller, to issue a command to change a state of a port bypass circuit (PBC);
• a general purpose input/output (GPIO) system, coupled to the controller, to receive the issued command via a first input and a second input, to generate a control signal to a latch associated with a PBC addressed by the command received via the first input, and to generate a clock signal to a latch associated with a PBC addressed by the command received via the second input, wherein the state does not change unless the first input and the second input receive the command unchanged;
• and
• wherein the issued command is an I2C™ command instructing the GPIO system to change the state of an addressed PBC, and wherein the state of the PBC does not change unless the control signal and the clock signal are received by a single latch associated with the addressed PBC.